


get cape. wear cape. fly.

by torigates



Category: Parks and Recreation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Andy Dywer was a superhero</p>
            </blockquote>





	get cape. wear cape. fly.

 

 

 

1.

Today Andy is five years old. Yesterday he was four, but tomorrow he won’t be six, his mom explained. Today is special because it’s his birthday. Andy thinks it’s magic.

He put on his cape before going downstairs, and there are pancakes and a present waiting for him on the table. Mom smiles at him, and pours him a big glass of chocolate milk.

“How’s my birthday boy?” she asks.

Andy grins back at her and hops up on the table, reaching for the present. Her hand reaches out and smacks his away. “Aw, mom,” he says.

“Not until after you eat your pancakes.”

Normally Andy loves pancakes more than any other food in the entire world. Sometimes he thinks he loves pancakes more than anything else in the whole world (except for maybe mom. And his cape), but right now it seems like torture. There’s a present just sitting there _waiting_ to be opened.

He shoves a whole pancake into his mouth and mom laughs. “Fine,” she relents. “Open your present.”

Andy swallows the mouthful of pancake and reaches for the package, still chewing. The paper is shiny and fun to rip, and by the time it’s open, he has to stare up at mom with wide eyes. She laughs.

“Well?” she asks. “Do you like it?”

Andy holds the box containing Optimus Prime over his head and lets out a scream.

“Indoor voice!” mom says, and Andy tries to be quiet, but it’s too hard. Eventually she sends him to play outside.

Andy stands on the edge of his deck with Optimus Prime. They’re going to have so many adventures together, he’s so excited. He climbs up on the rail to get a better view and thinks, it’s my birthday. Today I am five, and I have Optimus. We’re magic.

He jumps.

 

2.

 

Andy is seriously considering cutting out on English. He doesn’t really get the point of English class. He knows how to read already, he doesn’t get why he has to keep proving that over and over again. Every time he finishes a book he thinks, okay I’m done, and then Mrs. Sanderson puts another one down in front of him and it’s the worst.

He’s standing in front of his locker trying to decide whether to take his English books out, or just throw the rest of his crap in and call it a day when he hears loud voices down the hall. Considering he’s already ten minutes late to class, this is weird.

He shoves everything inside and turns the lock. Mrs. Sanderson already hates him anyway, he figures. Missing another class isn’t the end of the world. What’s she going to do anyway, hate him _more_?

He sees two dudes from the football team shoving some guy up against the lockers. Andy vaguely recognizes him, he thinks maybe they have chemistry together. Kevin something or other.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

The two football players barely spare him a glance, before turning back. Kevin shoots him a look that’s a cross between fuck off and help me. Andy decides to go with the later.

“Fuck off, you guys,” Andy says. “Leave him alone.”

The guys shove Kevin hard into the wall and turn and walk away. “Fag,” he hears one of them mutter.

“You okay?” Andy asks.

Kevin looks down at his feet like they’re the most interesting thing he’s ever seen.

“I’m about to cut class,” Andy says after a moment of silence. “You want to come with?”

 

3.

 

“Hey,” April says. “I love you.”

 

4.

 

The best thing (the _best_ thing) about being in a band is performing on stage. There is nothing more exhilarating, more powerful, more terrifying than standing up in front of a group of people and playing the music that Andy has written. Sometimes Andy thinks the most terrifying thing he’s ever said is “We’re Mouse Rat! Are you ready to rock?”

(Of course they hadn’t always been Mouse Rat. Sometimes he said Scarecrow Boat, or Fourskin, or Possum Pendulum, or Just the Tip, or any number of other names.)

It was scary when there was no one there to see them play except for Burly’s mom. It was scarier when they played to a full house.

When the lights went down and Andy couldn’t see anything except for the glare and shadow of the crowd, and James, Chang, and Burly beside him, it was incredible, freeing, amazing. Andy loves to sing, he loves to perform and he loves being in a band. He loves music.

“That was all right, I guess,” April tells him one night after a show.

He leans down and kisses her, and she wraps her arms around his neck. Andy loves this part too, April pressed up against him, his pulse still marching to the beat of their last song, and his lips against hers. “Thanks, babe,” he tells he when she pulls back.

They hang around the bar for another hour or two, drinking with the guys and listening to the band that went on after them. “They suck balls,” Burly says, but Andy thinks they’re actually pretty good. Probably better than Mouse Rat, though he’d never admit that out loud to anyone, not even April.

After, the night air is cool against his flushed skin. There’s still a sheen of sweat on his body, both from the performance, and the crowded heat of the bar. April’s hand is clutched tightly in his own, and she presses his back up against the van.

“Are you going to take me home and fuck me, or what?” she asks.

He drives through a red light, and Ben isn’t at the house when they get there.

 

5.

 

The first time April puts their son into his arms is the best fucking moment of his life.

“Hi,” he whispers, and their baby (their _baby_ ) curls his tiny fist around Andy’s finger.

Nothing can hurt him now. He’s invincible.


End file.
